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The Cubs signed Tucker Barnhart to a two-year, $6.5 million contract before the 2023 season to be the backup catcher to Yan Gomes.

This was another miscalculation by Jed Hoyer, as Barnhart was released before the ‘23 season ended after batting just .202/.285/.257 and throwing out only 18.9 percent of runners trying to steal. And he had hit pretty much for the same numbers the previous year with the Tigers.

Anyway, Barnhart played in just 43 games with the Cubs — and four of those were as a garbage-time pitcher, the second-most for any Cubs position player in a single season (Eric Sogard, as you know if you’ve been following this series, had five in 2021).

Here’s a brief summary of each of Barnhart’s four pitching appearances.

May 25 vs. Mets: The Cubs trailed 10-1 going to the ninth inning and Barnhart threw a scoreless ninth, allowing two singles. The Cubs didn’t score in the bottom of the ninth and lost 10-1.

July 16 vs. Red Sox: A key error by Nico Hoerner led to a five-run Boston fifth and the Cubs trailed 11-0 after seven. They scored three in the eighth so down 11-3, Barnhart threw the ninth. He allowed a one-out single but no runs. The Cubs scored two in the bottom of the ninth and lost 11-5 when Christopher Morel struck out to end the game.

Aug. 4 vs. Braves: The Cubs were down 8-0 going to the ninth. Barnhart allowed a one-out single to Ronald Acuña Jr. but no runs, and the Cubs failed to score in the bottom of the inning, losing 8-0.

Aug. 7 vs. Mets: Just three days after his previous mound appearance, Barnhart entered a game the Cubs were losing 10-2 heading to the bottom of the eighth. He allowed three hits, including this RBI single by Pete Alonso [VIDEO].

Check out the “speed” of that pitch:

The Cubs lost that game 11-2.

Barnhart played in just one more game for the Cubs after that, Aug. 16 vs. the White Sox, before being released Aug. 20. The Cubs ate the second year of the deal so he wound up playing 31 games in 2024 for the Diamondbacks and hitting even worse (.173/.287/.210). He played in eight games for the Rangers in 2025.

He also pitched in one game for Arizona and one for Texas, in addition to one for the Tigers in 2022, compiling a 7.88 ERA and 2.375 WHIP in eight total innings, with 19 hits allowed.

Inspiration.

The name (Loaisiga) has three consecutive vowels.  Guess what, Hawaii does too!  With that serendipity, let’s look at Jonathan Loaisiga.

Many articles talk about his past injuries.  Because he was signed to a minor league contract, my take is that in spring training either he wins a position or he doesn’t.  But please don’t misunderstand – I very much hope he takes care of himself and avoids re-injury. 

“I’m hoping I’m done with injuries.  I want to sign with someone and pitch like I can. The way I’m feeling, I’m confident it can happen next season. I’m working hard. I’m feeling good.” – Jonathan Loaisiga

What did Make Hazen say about him?

He has an opportunity to win a position in the bullpen.

“I think he’s got great stuff. We’ve always liked him from afar.” — Mike Hazen

“He’s going to go into the mix and there’s going to be opportunity in our pen. …Coming into spring training, we should be a very attractive place for players to come in and compete. We have a number of good young arms, but there are still a couple spots in our pen that are not established.” — Mike Hazen

He chose the Diamondbacks.

At least three teams (Cubs, Giants, and D-backs) made contingent offers to Loaisiga.  The offers were contingent on him pitching in the Nicaragua Winter League. 

In December/January, in the Nicaragua Winter League, he pitched in 5 games for Indios del Boer.  After that, he seriously considered two solid offers.

“Loaisiga passed on [a] one-year, $1-million major-league contract with the Minnesota Twins to accept a minor-league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks in which he’ll make around $3.8 million if he makes the club out of spring training, Nicaraguan baseball reporter Levi Luna told NJ Advance Media.” — Levi Luna

It’s impressive that Jonathan Loaisiga bet on himself; he bet that he will win a position in spring training instead of accepting a guaranteed million dollars. 

Another positive was that the Diamondbacks have warmer weather and Chase Field has a roof – perhaps helping him avoid injury.  Another positive was that he would allow less home runs at Chase Field (home run park factor of 88 compared to 102 for the Twins).

How would I choose bullpen pitchers?

With the addition of Nolan Arenado at third base, I would look for pitchers with high ground ball rates, and especially high ground ball rates to third base. 

Let’s compare four right-handed relief pitchers who are competing for a bullpen position.  My view is that these four pitchers will have roughly equivalent ERAs in 2026 (based on their xERAs last season).  A caveat is that Cristian Mena’s 3.07 xERA was better than the other three xERAs (3.56 to 3.77).  Also, they all have fastball velocities higher than 94 MPH, which a foundational requirement for success as a reliever per this AZ Snake Pit article.

The following table compares the four pitchers.  My first focus was on ground ball percentage of balls-in-play (BIPs) and ground balls to third base percentage of BIPs. Next, I considered hard-hit percentages and bases-on-balls percentages.  Data from Baseball Savant.

Although all four pitchers would have a lot of ground balls, including a lot of ground balls to third base to take advantage of Nolan Arenado’s excellent defense, when adding consideration of hard-hit percentage and walk rates, Jonathan Loaisiga has a significant chance to win a spot in the bullpen. 

Summary.

Jonathan Loaisiga has a chance to win a spot in the bullpen.

It’s impressive that Jonathan Loaisiga bet on himself; he bet that he will win a position in spring training with the Diamondbacks instead of accepting a guaranteed million dollars. 

He was compared to three other ground ball pitchers, each with roughly equivalent xERA and each with a fastball velocity greater than 94 MPH. Based on ground ball percentage (especially to third base where excellent defender Nolan Arenado will play), based on hard-hit percentage, and based on walk-rate percentage, Jonathan Loaisiga has a significant chance to win a spot in the bullpen.

The Milwaukee Brewers announced a list of nine prospects who are invited to the team’s spring training as non-roster invitees. The group is headlined by shortstop Jesús Made, who ranks as the team’s No. 1 prospect and as a consistent top five MLB prospect across expert rankings.

Plenty has been said about Made on this site, so I’ll direct you to the latest article from Adam, our minor league reporter. The same can be said about shortstop Cooper Pratt and utilityman Jett Williams, who are also consistently in the top 100 prospects. You can read more about them here.

The other six prospects included in the non-roster invitees are 1B/3B Luke Adams (team No. 10 prospect in 2025), LHP Tate Kuehner, OF Luis Lara (team No. 14), C Ramón Rodríguez, 3B Brock Wilken (team No. 19), and C Matt Wood.

While Adams, Lara, and Wilken all rank among the team’s top prospects, Rodríguez and Wood are arguably the most interesting names of that group, as the team’s catching depth is close to zero beyond William Contreras. After Danny Jansen left for Texas in free agency and Eric Haase agreed to a minor league deal with the Giants earlier this month, it seems all but certain that the team’s backup option behind Contreras is Jeferson Quero, who is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster.

After Quero, though, Rodríguez and Wood seem to be the next two men up. Rodríguez, 27, was a 30th-round pick by the Dodgers all the way back in 2016. He’s bounced around in minor league free agency since then, appearing in the Orioles’ system for a few seasons before signing with Milwaukee in late 2023. He spent 2025 with Double-A Biloxi, hitting .359/.457/.484 with two homers, 19 RBIs, and eight runs scored across just 21 games.

Wood, who turns 25 in March, was a fourth-round pick by Milwaukee in 2022. He split the 2025 season between High-A Wisconsin and Biloxi, hitting .256/.372/.380 with seven homers, 43 RBIs, 41 runs, and 10 steals over 89 games between the two levels.

Just to quickly touch on the other players included here:

Adams, who turns 22 in April, was a 12th-round pick in 2022 and spent most of 2025 at Biloxi. In 64 games with the Shuckers, he hit .232/.409/.450 with 11 homers, 38 RBIs, 50 runs, and 10 steals.

Kuehner, who turns 25 in February, was Milwaukee’s seventh-round pick in 2023 out of Louisville. He turned in a great season at Biloxi, pitching to a 2.50 ERA with 112 strikeouts across 100 2/3 innings. He was promoted to Triple-A Nashville late in the year and didn’t have much success with the Sounds, with a 5.59 ERA and five strikeouts over 9 2/3 innings before an injury ended his season in late August.

Lara, 21, was an international signee out of Venezuela in 2022. He spent all of 2025 at Biloxi, hitting .257/.369/.343 with a pair of homers, 40 RBIs, 79 runs, and 44 steals. While he doesn’t bring a ton to the plate, he’s one of the best defensive players in Milwaukee’s system, with a 60 FV grade (on the 20-80 scale) for both his arm and his fielding.

Wilken, 23, was Milwaukee’s first-round choice in 2023 out of Wake Forest. He spent the 2025 season with Biloxi, hitting .226/.387/.489 with 18 homers, 46 RBIs, 46 runs, and a pair of steals across 79 games as he dealt with some injury troubles.

The pre-2026 prospect rankings lists continue to swoon over Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo.

In ESPN’s top 100 list published today, Kiley McDaniel ranks Basallo as MLB’s #4 prospect, behind only the consensus top three in baseball, Konnor Griffin (Pirates), Kevin McGonigle (Tigers), and Jesús Made (Brewers). ESPN’s ranking is the highest that Basallo has received among the prospect publications thus far, though he’s been a top 10 guy for all of them. MLB Pipeline and The Athletic both ranked Basallo at #8 and Baseball America #9.

Basallo is one of three Orioles prospects to appear on ESPN’s list, along with Trey Gibson (#46) and Dylan Beavers (#57).

McDaniel praises Basallo’s “huge bat speed and raw power” and writes that the youngster reminds him of “some Salvador Perez, a bit of Gary Sánchez, maybe a sprinkling of (whispers) Jim Thome.” I think any Oriole fan would be happy if Basallo’s career follows the path of Perez, who has 303 homers in 14 seasons and is still going strong for the Royals. And if Basallo hits anything like the Hall of Famer Thome, well…look out, baseball.

McDaniel is also more bullish on Basallo’s defense than some, calling his work behind the plate “acceptable.” (Yes, that qualifies as bullish.)

In terms of blocking and framing, Basallo is below average but respectable and is capable of improving a bit more. His arm is a true weapon, even though his exchange keeps his pop time from landing in plus-plus territory. In an automatic strike-calling future, this skill set could fit well.

As for the Orioles’ other prospects, ESPN joins Baseball America and MLB Pipeline in putting Beavers on its list. (The Athletic excluded him.) McDaniel touts Beavers as “likely a solid every-day right fielder in the big leagues,” predicting him for “an above-average on-base percentage” along with 15-20 home runs and stolen bases.

The biggest surprise on ESPN’s list was Gibson, the 23-year-old undrafted free agent who reached Triple-A in 2025 in his third season in the organization. McDaniel isn’t the only prospect writer who’s high on Gibson — BA also included him, at #72 — but he’s the only one to include him in his top 50 and rank him ahead of Beavers.

McDaniel calls Gibson a “supinator” — a pitcher who has a bias toward cutting the ball — and compares Gibson to current Orioles ace Kyle Bradish, former Orioles ace Corbin Burnes, and former O’s draft pick Nolan McLean, now ranked as the #13 prospect in baseball for the Mets. McDaniel is impressed by Gibson’s assortment of pitches, with a fastball that can hit 98 mph “backed up by three standout breaking balls and headlined by a plus curveball.” He pegs Gibson as a future MLB contributor in some capacity.

Gibson has massive, 7-foot extension and his higher arm slot means he works primarily with a riding four-seamer and vertical curveball versus McLean’s running two-seamer and sweeper, but the general shapes are quite similar. There’s a high floor for this type of arm — Gibson is almost a slam dunk to be a later-inning reliever if starting doesn’t work — but there’s also No. 2/No. 3 starter upside with one more tick of command refinement.

Unlike the three other publications, ESPN’s list doesn’t include High-A outfielder Nate George among the top 100 prospects.

A complete list of which Orioles are ranked on each prospect list so far, with publications such as FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus still to come:

• Baseball America: Basallo (#9), Beavers (#21), Gibson (#72), George (#86), Luis De León (#95)
• MLB Pipeline: Basallo (#8), Beavers (#69), George (#93)
• The Athletic: Basallo (#8), Wehiwa Aloy (#73), George (#78), Ike Irish (#85), Enrique Bradfield Jr. (#97)
• ESPN: Basallo (#4), Gibson (#46), Beavers (#57)

Jose Franco has been within the Cincinnati Reds farm system since way back in 2019, and in that seven-year stretch has seen plenty. After a strong 57.1 IP debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2019, he – like every one else – lost the 2020 season, and by the time 2021 rolled around he’d been brought stateside to take on A-ball batters with the Daytona Tortugas at just 19 years of age.

It didn’t go very well.

He trudged through two seasons in the Florida State League with some tough results only to then lose the entire 2023 season to Tommy John surgery. By the time he got back on the mound in 2024, though, something began to click for the then 23 year old, and he’s been on the rise up the system rankings ever since – and now finds himself on the 40-man roster.

Last year saw him pitch to a 3.11 ERA and 1.26 WHIP across 110.0 IP split between AA Chattanooga and AAA Louisville, his fastball flirting with 100 mph with great deception as he fanned over a batter an inning. While his secondary pitches are still a work in progress, it’s that heater that has him on the cusp of the big leagues, where he already looks like he’d be a solid reliever even if those secondary pitches never round into form.

If they do, though, suddenly the Reds have a 260 lb righty who can beef up their rotation options in a hurry.

Franco lands on this year’s Community Prospect Rankings in spot #11, which he rightly claimed with nearly 32% of the vote on a crowded (and talented) ballot. I’d add the photo of the voting totals here, but it somehow did not save properly before I cleared out the Google Form, so it’s lost to history unless you’re willing to simply take my word for it.

There’s no doubt veteran Harrison Bader improves the Giants outfield defensively. He’s got the flair, the hair, and the hardware, not to mention eight years of consistently excellent defensive metrics, to back up his reputation as one of the best center fielders in the game.

Considering the 2025 Giants outfield defense ranked dead last in many meaningful categories, this is a good get and a necessary one. The signing is a rising tide that lifts all ships. Thanks to Bader’s range, left field will get smaller, penning Heliot Ramos in and allowing him to focus on being more consistent within his patch of grass. Jung Hoo Lee is a far better fielder than last season’s numbers suggest. In 2026, he’ll have a season’s worth of first-hand experience in his back pocket. He’ll know the dimensions of outfields better, be better acclimated to playing outdoors, be more assertive — but with Bader now as the meat in the outfield sandwich, Lee will take this progress, along with his natural athleticism and strong arm, and focus on right field. Considering Oracle’s tough dimensions in the corner, it’s a position that deserves a player’s full attention.

What feels more up in the air is what Bader can do with his bat. The 31-year old has been a defensive first player for his entire career. He’s a harbor seal: graceful in the water, incredibly awkward on land. A wide flat lawn is Bader’s happy place. When he gets his cherubic curls bouncing as he tracks a liner into the gap, everything is gravy. Give him a glove and he’s zero to hero — he looks like the cartoon version of Hercules too.

But swap leather for wood, and Bader’s grace goes out the window. Hitting for Bader is all 12 of Hercules’ labors, from the Nemean Lion to Cerberus, rolled into one frustrating task. He’s been a free swinger who doesn’t walk much. When he makes contact, it’s rarely hard-hit. His career 96 OPS+ has him a hair below average — and that’s after a bit of a lift from a 114 OPS+ in 2021 (103 G) and a 117 OPS+ in 2025 (146 G). In the intervening three years, Bader didn’t log an OPS above .657. Success with the club has been few and far between. 

Then, after years in the wilderness, bouncing from team to team, Bader set career-highs with 146 games played and 501 plate appearances logged between the Twins and Phillies. He slashed .277/ .347/ .449, his .796 OPS, another career mark at the plate. 

Some nice, productive numbers there — but there’s plenty to suggest they’re a little fluke-y. For instance, his expected stats, like .220 xBA and .374 xSLG, were not only well below his actual results and in the bottom quarter percentile compared to the rest of the league. After hitting .258 against fastballs as a Met in 2024, Bader’s average jumped to .319 against the heater — but his .252 xBA suggests there wasn’t any significant change in the quality of contact. Did he just get lucky? Was he just catching an unsustainable amount of breaks, with squirrely balls in play finding gaps and holes? Those kinds of things to happen. Bader’s .359 BABIP was the highest in his career by far and another significant jump from 2024’s .276 average. 

While there’s plenty to doubt about some of Bader’s seemingly inflated offensive numbers in 2025, there are foundational differences that might give us some hope that the improvements are viable.

Bader made some important changes to how he set up at the plate. He maintained the same distance from the plate and depth in the box but closed off his stance a bit, but shortened the distance between his feet by about ten inches and closed off his stance from 16 degrees open to 12 degrees open. This tweak simplifies his lower half as he steps into his swing. Instead of having to pull his front foot back and in at pitch release, the front foot starts further back and has a much quieter move to its position when the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand.

This fundamental adjustment in how Bader sets up at the plate could lend some credibility to the offensive numbers last year. The quality of contact did improve: His 40.3% Hard-Hit rate was a career high as was his 10.2% Barrel percentage (not including 2020). The harder contact came from a much quicker swing speed, jumping from a 71.2 MPH (38th percentile) in 2024 to a 73.5 MPH (71st percentile). Statcast points out that a “fast swing” at 75 MPH or quicker is akin to hitting a ball 95 MPH or faster. Good things happen when you pass that threshold. Fast swings mean harder hit balls in play which generally translate to higher averages and more damage.

Bader started making those quality cuts at a much higher clip than ever before, going from uncorking a  Fast Swing 20% of the time to doing it 37% of the time. Now he didn’t catapult himself into the upper-echelon of bat tracking gods like Kyle Schwarber or Aaron Judge, but those swing improvements did land him among a relatively high-tier. Bader’s 2025 bat tracking metrics would’ve put him comfortably in the top-3 of fast-swingers on the Giants line-up clustered right alongside Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman.

The swing isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s got good bones. That being said, it’s hard to argue with history. Players don’t typically improve as hitters in the early-30s, or in San Francisco, and Bader will be both in his early-thirties and playing in San Francisco in 2026. So yeah, it’d be realistic to expect some sort of regression back to his mean offensively. The positive improvements and adjustments he made in 2025 aren’t cures to every ingrained bad-habit. You’d be right to point out that a fast swing still has to make contact with a baseball.

All those qualifications and realism aside — what happened last year happened. People change, and there’s the possibility that Bader is a better, not badder, batter than we thought.